The cutting-edge of cutting: How Japanese scissors have evolved (2018) | Hacker News Reader

The cutting-edge of cutting: How Japanese scissors have evolved (2018)

asia.nikkei.com

413 points_Microft112 comments

Japan being a world leader in scissors does not surprise me after listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episode on Japan:

https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-62-supern...

Dan brought insight into Japan that I did not have, explaining that Japan is a society of extremes. For Japan to be world leader in anything the Japanese society sets their mind to does not surprise me at all now.

(side note: I worked and lived in Japan for seven years and my wife is Japanese too. I thought I knew what Japanese people were, but Dan's explanation crystalized what being Japanese is for me.)

I would more describe this as a natural extension of a large artisanal tradition of sword-makers—swords at one point being as common in Japan as guns are in America today, unlike most of Europe where the average personal-carry weapon was a knife. There were tons of swordsmiths around to fill all that demand (and no automation to let just a few swordsmiths fill it); and the descendants of all those sword-makers still have some of that knowledge, and nothing useful to do with it (there being only so much demand for decorative and ceremonial swords today to sustain a few swordsmiths.) So what do they turn their knowledge of swordsmithing to? Making tinier pieces of metal sharp using the same techniques. Like scissors. Or fountain-pen nibs.

Or just using those skills to entertain, like this guy: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nek3wk/rice-kitchen-knife...

You both may like this video:

“Making $35,000 bonsai scissors”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2XGwmRJi8

The legend of Japanese swordmaking is much overplayed. Swords were common, but swordmaking wasn't. Swords were far more valuable in japan due to the lack of some basic resources (metals). Japanese swords were therefore passed down rather than destroyed, as opposed to viking culture where swords were often buried. So a smaller pool of Japanese sword makers making a relatively small number of swords could supply a larger population.

Japanese swords are also much softer than enthusiasts like to admit. They are very pure carbon+iron steel but that is limiting. Again, due to nature of the available resources, Japanese sword makers did not utilize other elements, impurities, that strengthen steel beyond what can be done with iron+carbon. And all that famous folding was not unique to Japan. The average viking sword demonstrates much the same level of craftsmanship, at least in terms of the actual steel. Japanese swords are certainly better looking but they were never the magical objects often portrayed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz_steel

"For reasons that are not entirely clear, but possibly because sources of ores containing trace amounts of tungsten and/or vanadium needed for its production were depleted, the process was lost to the middle-eastern metalsmiths around 1750. It has been eagerly sought by many since that time."

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/d/Damasc...

Do you have a source for this opinion, or are you a sword expert?

It's too early in my morning to provide a source for him, but I can at least concur. My wife studied East Asian culture extensively and I'm a WWII buff and so we could each tell the other, for example, about the change in policy under MacArthur on destroying swords during the US occupation (in particular, destroying the cheap stamped swords issued post-1930 vs 'preserving' i.e. letting US soldiers loot and take home the historial ones).

As far as either of us know, it's common knowledge among anyone other than the 'katanas can cut steel beams' crowd that Japan was very very iron-poor, was alloying-elements-poor, that their folding technique was not unique by any means, and that noone including Japan sharpened swords to a single molecule's thickness on the cutting edge for good reasons relating to durability. (You could, if you wanted to, fairly trivially sharpen your kitchen knives at least near that degree. You wouldn't want to, for the same durability reason.)

My wife is now professionally a neuroscientist, and they do use scalpels that precisely sharp, or even sharpened tungsten wire 'grown' chemically into that configuration for precision work like cutting into a single cell of your choice under high power microscopy. But all of those are nearly single-use-only instruments. To the extent they can be reused, it's because they only touched very soft cellular material and never contacted something anywhere as hard as a cutting board, much less a bone -- as both kitchen knives and combat swords would do routinely in use. You really don't want the tip of your blade folding over upon itself, which happens almost immediately with a blade that thin. If curious on this topic, investigate the advantages of a beveled (multi-angle) grind, common on a chef's knife, vs a hollow ground edge like you might find on a santoku kitchen knife -- particularly pay attention to the difference in maintenance required of each.

I expect googling for 'japan iron-poor' and 'sword folding technique' would immediately shed light on either of those areas, if you're still in search of a citation.

You can search woodworking saws and come to the same conclusions: Japanese developed pull saws because they couldn't create (for lack of raw materials) the high quality steel required to make a western style push saw.

I was skeptical before I tried one, but now I prefer pull saws for most fine woodworking tasks. Pulling tensions the blade, which allows it to be much thinner. If a push saw was that thin, it would take more skill not to bend it in use.

There are advantages to the pull saw, that is why people use them. However there are advantages to the push saw as well. For fine woodworking pull has the advantages you state, for course woodworking push uses more powerful muscles. Today we mostly use power tools for most cases where it powerful muscles matter.

I did quite a bit of research before buying a handmade gyuto (a Japanese reinterpretation of the French chef's knife). One thing I found is that it's recommended not to cut anything with bones in it using such a knife. Because the steel is hardened more than is typical of a French or German chef's knife, it's likely to chip rather than roll over. It's also ground and sharpened at a narrower angle, which tends to be impossible with a softer steel because it will roll over during sharpening, producing a foil burr instead of a sharp edge.

I haven't heard of anybody who knows much about the subject intentionally limiting how small they make the edge radius of a knife to preserve the durability of the edge. It's nearly always desirable to get the edge radius of a knife blade as small as possible, because it will take more wear or deformation before it's too thick to cut effectively. There is some subtlety though: a wider bevel angle is more stable and obviously adds resistance when cutting, though it can actually result in a smaller edge radius. A convex grind improves both stability and edge radius, but is more difficult to produce. My gyuto has a convex primary grind, but the edge bevel was straight, as a flat stone would produce.

A santoku doesn't typically have a hollow grind, though some specialty knives like the yanagiba are typically concave on one side and flat or convex or the other.

There are some interesting electron micrographs of hand-sharpened knife and razor blades at https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com/

Glass knives (as used in microtomes) are the sharpest, but they lose their edge quickly.

That “smaller pool” is still somewhere in the range of 100+ traditional sword-making families. (One per major clan in the feudal era, basically.)

How many of those families are active making swords today? Probably six.

That’s 96+ people inheriting the legacy (knowledge, tools, masterworks, etc.) of a swordsmith, maybe feeling inspired by them, but not having any direct application for that inspiration.

Because there now exists automation, you only need a few of those descendants-of-smiths to put their inspiration into a non-traditional application, to see a boom in “every-day products crafted using swordsmithing knowledge.” Each one of those descendants-of-smiths can serve as a consultant for an entire kitchenware or stationery manufacturer.

——

And, mind you, I never said that the Japanese tradition of swordsmithing was good or advanced. You’re right about these being misconceptions.

Instead, the important part is that the tradition was more prolific, compared to other countries active in swordsmithing in a near-enough-to-modern period that the descendants are still around and the legacies of their sword-smith ancestors haven’t been lost to time. This means there are more Japanese people than people of any other country who essentially “grew up in a sword-smithy” (whether it was an active one or not) and so likely became inspired to study sword-smithing, even if just as a hobby.

Mind you, the modern smiths who feel inspired by their ancestors’ works aren’t using their ancestors’ techniques to make all these fancy modern scissor/kitchen knife/etc. blades. They’re using modern knowledge learned from global sources. They didn’t study Japanese swordsmithing; they studied all swordsmithing.

But, because the interest in swordsmithing is uniquely concentrated in modern Japan compared to other countries, there’s a critical mass of people with that interest—enough to fuel a community. And that community is responsible for the flourishing and progression of technique in modern Japan.

> Japanese swords were therefore passed down rather than destroyed, as opposed to viking culture where swords were often buried

It should be noted that viking swords were often also passed down even after being buried, due to the lovely part of the viking wedding ceremony where the groom presents an ancestral sword from his family to the bride, to keep in trust until they have a son to take it [1].

That sword was often obtained by making the groom take it from the grave of an ancestor it was buried with.

That makes me wonder why the sword was buried in the first place. Most cultures that bury a person with their possessions seem to do so because they believe that the items will be needed by the person in the afterlife.

But if vikings buried your grandfather with his sword because they believed he needs it in the afterlife, it seems odd that they would later make you take it for your wedding and leave the old man defenseless against his afterlife foes.

[1] http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/wedding.shtml

>> That makes me wonder why the sword was buried in the first place.

That makes me wonder if the sword was ever really buried. It is a valuable object. If you think it is going to be brought out again, you don't bury it like you would body, certainly nowhere near decaying flesh. I would put it in some chamber near or above the body, more like in a safe than in a grave.

> That makes me wonder why the sword was buried in the first place.

Probably some ritual related to "entering" heaven. Similar to putting coins on the eyes of the dead. Maybe they won't need it after a period of time?

Viking swords were not particularly good and the Vikings knew it, which is why they tended to prefer imported swords from Frankia.

Source: "The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings"

Did people viking with swords much. I was led to believe they preferred axes and hammers?

(And that pikes, etc., were much preferred in battles later on.)

Yes and no. It depends on who you're talking about and at what point in time. Swords were much more expensive than other weapons because they require more metal and are more time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, so your average viking couldn't necessarily afford to buy one. That's also why you tend to see swords buried with vikings: those who could afford or who warranted a fancy burial tended to be those who could afford to buy swords.

The prevalence of swords increased throughout the viking age (which ended roughly some time in the mid to late 1100's). That happened mainly for two reasons: One was that the Vikings were engaging in a lot more pitched battles against Anglo-Saxon and Frankish armies, who tended to carry swords. Of course they'd steal swords off dead soldiers, so the number of swords in circulation among vikings increased. Second, as viking power grew they were able to broker arms deals (occasionally as part of "tribute" payment) with Frankish rulers and with vikings who'd been gifted land in Normandy in exchange for warding off other vikings at the mouth of the Seine.

I'm not aware of anyone actually fighting with a hammer. Axes were very common because they were so cheap that virtually everyone had one- even farmers. Pikes were definitely used on occasion but were more special purpose tools for pitched battles. Bear in mind that vikings didn't really want to fight pitched battles at all if they could help it. They were raiders. The word viking ("wicing") is the Anglo-Saxon word for "pirate." The Codex Regius, which is the written source of most Norse mythology and thought to be written around the mid 1200's, is replete with references to both swords and axes. Otherwise, most of what we know about vikings and their weapons comes either from what the Anglo-Saxons wrote about them or archaeological studies.

The Vikings traded hihg-purity Swedish iron far and wide, however, including with the Arab world.

Their mechanical pencils are fantastic too. They also make amazing kitchen knives.

I've had the experience with pens. We see some of the innovations here -- gel, smaller ball points, etc., but we see them years later and in less variety.

And while I understand that it makes sense that rice is so much more important in Japan, I was blown away at the options on a rice cooker. In particular I like the feature where I tell it what time I want something to be done as opposed to when it should start. Waking up to warm oatmeal is incredible.

Lots of consumer stuff in Japan is way ahead of the US, and for good reason: American consumers simply won't buy it. They'd rather spend all their money on McMansions (with huge power bills) and giant SUVs.

I cannot recall a succinct term, but certainly people come to accept certain limits and price points.

It is possible to live in the United States and limit time spent in automobiles, size of houses, but sure can be difficult to get friends and family to understand such unorthodox priorities.

It is possible, sure, but most Americans don't do it willingly. Usually they do it because they're poor, in which case they don't have much money for Japanese consumer goods. The ones who do just aren't very numerous, so it doesn't make business sense to try to sell many things in the American market because too few people will buy them.

Is there a source for swords being substantially more common in Japan than Europe? I hadn't heard that before.

I had purchased nail clippers in samurai swords workshop. Best in my life.

Japanese manufacturing industry is a really interesting blend of manual artisanship combined with cutting edge technology. One of my favorite shows is "Supreme Skills!" - a 'reality competition' produced by NHK where teams of engineers/fabricators compete making "impossible" objects.

Watch a guy on a lathe go head to head against an EDM to drill a hole through a pencil lead lengthwise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCtWPbTDbuY

It seems to me that that tradition is just an example of the phenomenon the OP is referring to.

IMO these novel scissors don't really represent the achievements of Japanese scissor-making. The market for high-quality hairdressing and barbering scissors and tailoring shears is now almost completely dominated by Japanese manufacturers.

There are two makers left in Sheffield (William Whitely and Ernest Wright), a handful remain in Solingen, but Japan has dozens of high-end scissor manufacturers. It's a remarkable niche success story, built on a careful combination of design innovation and traditional craftsmanship.

To wit:

https://www.mizutani-scissors.com/en/

If you're in the market for a $900 hair shear.

30 min documentary that goes into these sort of artisanal scissors in Japan: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd_ySi7mjeE

Well thank you, I know feel compelled to spend unnecessary amounts of money.

This video was that I thought the original link would be about. BEGIN Japanology is an incredible series.

Came here to post this.

While I have not tried many “brand” scissors, a Finnish Fiskars has really good ones.

I remember these as the "good scissors" on my grandmother's sewing table that I was not allowed to use. She had several pairs that were passed down through generations, some that predate the famous "orange" handles from the 60s. I've not used a modern pair to know how they compare but wondered if they were riding on the name like Kitchen-Aid, Craftsman etc, or were actually still high quality.

There's a few YouTube videos about the Ernest Wright factory. From memory, one details how elderly, master scissor makers were staying on well last retirement age in order to pass the skills onto a new generation of apprentices. I found it fascinating.

This one I loved, though could be my background working in a proper 'shop. https://vimeo.com/98953952

I watched a TV program here in Japan a couple weeks ago where the panelists were all senior executives from stationery companies. The executives were asked about, in various categories (pens, paper, staplers, etc.), which of their competitors had the best product. For scissors, they all raved about the Plus Fitcut Curve (mentioned in the article). They are the best scissors you can buy for less than 10 dollars.

https://www.amazon.com/Plus-Curve-Scissors-Large-35060/dp/B0...

I think the article mentions that these are made in Seki city, in Gifu prefecture. Seki is famous for knife makers and they have a really neat knife festival with a street market. If you’re into that kind of thing, it may be worth visiting. If nothing else, you can get a sense of how traditional Japan manifests in these little industrial enclaves in small town Japan.

Note that if you don’t go during the festival, the downtown is pretty much dead. There is a nice knife shop that caters to tourists (刃物センター blade center) but the festival is definitely the best part of the year.

The big problem I see with being a tourist and going to this thing is that you'll have to pay to have your knife purchases shipped home (or pay a hefty checked-baggage fee), since you can't bring sharp blades in carry-on luggage.

In this hypothetical trip to Japan, with airfare, lodging, food, drink, local transportation, and luxury knife purchases (including duty), a 25 USD checked bag fee is 'hefty' and a 'big problem'?

I don't check bags. It's usually more than $25, and it's a giant pain in the ass dealing with checked luggage. If I can't fit everything in my carry-on backpack, it doesn't go. So yes, it is a big problem. Don't forget, when you change planes in the US, your luggage doesn't even change planes automatically.

And how is "drink" a significant cost anyway, to get in that list of yours? In Japan, they give you free water at every meal.

You can easily buy luxury knives from Seki, Japan at specialist websites like jp-knives.com and have them shipped for free.

>Don't forget, when you change planes in the US, your luggage doesn't even change planes automatically.

What? Are you sure you've ever flown in the US?

They might mean at customs? When you go through customs you have to get your bag and then recheck it but they do have a place to drop them off without having to go through security again so it's not that much of PITA.

>but they do have a place to drop them off without having to go through security again so it's not that much of PITA.

This is wrong at LAX. You absolutely have to go through security again.

Try traveling without checked bags sometime. For part of your stay, get an AirBnB that has laundry facilities.

Only having a single small roller bag (or less, I know people who just have a single backpack!) makes travelling a lot easier. I often miss being able to bring stuff home in checked luggage, but I love getting off an airplane and not having to wait for my baggage, or worry if I'll be in the 1% that doesn't get my bag back!

As an example, I landed early morning in London, walked off the airplane, went through customs, and got right on public transit, then right to a tiny cafe and had some breakfast.

Could I do that with a giant checked suitcase? Sure. Maybe. But it'd suck. And the first thing on my mind would be getting to lodging to drop off my bag. Landing at 9am and having a giant bag I need to drag around until 2pm or whenever check-in time is means a large chunk of my first day is ruined, and I get to repeat all that after a 10am checkout dragging a big bag around until it is time to go to the airport and fly back home.

Bonus: in Japan, with only a small roller bag, taking public transit to/from the airport becomes very doable at any time of the day.

tl;dr smaller bags mean simpler logistics for the entirety of a trip.

Exactly; this is the only way I travel now. I have two backpacks, a large "travel backpack" that fits in carry-on, and a smaller one that holds my laptop and some other stuff and fits under the seat in front of me. The smaller one clips onto the larger one when I need to carry it around, and then when I've left the large one at my hotel/hostel, it becomes my daypack to hold a raincoat, souvenirs, brochures, etc.

In many places, hotels have laundry facilities. Every place I stayed in Japan had them, so it was easy to just bring enough clothes for 4 days and do laundry every so often.

I'll also add that any kind of roll-around luggage is a giant PITA if you're in Europe, because the streets and sidewalks are largely cobblestones.

> In many places, hotels have laundry facilities.

In most countries I have visited, the laundry facilities are cost prohibitive and the cost of 4 days of laundry is greater than the hotel bill!

Super cool if you found a place that had free laundry services!

In Japan, every hotel or hostel has laundry, and you can do a full load for Y400 or less. There's also coin-op laundromats with similar prices. It isn't free, but it isn't expensive by any means, it's probably cheaper than using a coin locker to lock your suitcase so you don't have to lug it around all day until the hotel lets you check in.

In Europe, many smaller hotels have laundry on-site you can ask to use, or again you can use coin-op laundromats which aren't that expensive.

What countries did you visit that were "cost prohibitive" for doing laundry?

China was a no-go, the major hotel I stayed at in Suzhou was incredibly nice, had a great price on the room, and an expensive per-piece laundry service. The tiny hotel I stayed at in Beijing didn't have laundry facilities for guests.

Shinjuku Prince in Tokyo also had the usual high per-piece laundry rates. I don't 100% recall but I think the Ryokan I stayed at was similar.

I AirBnB'd through the UK, so I didn't have to worry about it. Same thing in Mexico, didn't bother with hotels.

Throughout the US it is a no-go of course.

It sounds like you're staying at expensive hotels.

I just spent 2 weeks in Japan. The locally-owned hotels had laundry on-site usually. This isn't full-service laundry; this is a coin-op machine on the ground floor that you use yourself. The one I used at a very new hotel in Osaka (Sarasa in Dotenbori) was really nice; you just put your Y400 in and come back in an hour or so, as it does both washing and drying. At hostels, it varies, but one I stayed at just charged me Y100 to wash a load, but they didn't have a dryer so I had to walk down the street and pay Y200 to dry it.

Did you even look at laundromats? If you're expecting hotel staff to do your laundry for you, then you're not going to get that cheap in almost any country, certainly not any industrialized one.

> Did you even look at laundromats?

AirBnB + Filter on Laundry is easier. :-D Don't have to take time out of the day and all that.

The Ryokan was mid-tier, nothing fancy. Went to three cities, 2nd one was AirBnB with washer+dryer available, so everything was washed there.

Ryokan are known to be expensive. Business hotels are much, much cheaper. And yes, AirBnB is a good option too. When I was searching for hotels on booking.com and travelocity.com, I was able to see which ones had laundry there too.

Well, the knives at Seki are surprisingly affordable, if that helps! I’ve shipped knives back to the US before. It’s a luxury, but not an extravagance.

There is still a world of difference between modern ground flat blade scissors and forged bowed blades. Modern style scissors stop cutting as soon as the hinge flexes open a bit. That doesn't happen with bowed blades in good repair.

> I watched a TV program here in Japan a couple weeks ago where...

Boy did that go a completely different route than I expected. Television from Japan has some very strange programs.

What did they recommend for staplers?

I just checked (I have the episode recorded) and they didn't actually talk about staplers, sorry. If it's any consolation, my "Cool Japan" recommendation is the Harinacs stapleless stapler.

https://www.amazon.com/Kokuyo-Harinacs-Stapleless-Ten-sheet-...

I have the Fitcut Curve, the Carl Xscissors and many more besides: https://blog.majid.info/galleries/scissors/

The ones I like best for everyday use are the (also Japanese) Allex, although the Dovo are better yet, but I am somehow afraid of using them because they are so nice.

I clicked through to this article because I recently bought some scissors from Amazon here in Japan. I didn't do any comparisons or anything, I just chose a cheap model from the first page of results.

I am not like a heavy scissors user, I was just sick of not being able to find the scissors, so I wanted a couple extra around the house.

And then they were delivered and I was like HOLY SHIT THESE SCISSORS ARE AMAZING!!!! And I quite literally told five or six people about these scissors, just because I was so astonished how well they cut things. I didn't know scissors went to this level.

Sure enough, the kind I bought is referenced in the article (the one with pink handles in the photo). Nakabayashi's Hikigiri model.

¥432 at Amazon Japan (about $4.00). Amazing.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B00NATJ7R0/ref=ppx_yo_dt...

Tried replacing “.co.jp” with “.com” and it worked, to my surprise. Price changes to $25.56 though (with “free shipping”) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NATJ7R0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

Some of these are incredibly sharp!

The titanium coated one they have in one picture (gold tinted blade) is one I got via jetpens.com and via an incident with them sliding along a plastic tab; I got my first stitches ever, 3 stitches from a cut adjacent a joint of the right pointer finger. (Fall 2018 at the tender age of 30. )

My recommendation: only use normal scissors on paper, for every thing else use a scissor with the grippy micro serrations for a safer / better time.

In the kitchen the oxo brand scissors are great. For random plastic stuff like the dreaded plastic clamshell I take the nuclear route of using a compound action tin snips! Makes plastic or sheet metal cut like melted butter. And way safer ;)

Ouch! Personally I consider all the TiNi coated scissors and knives to be basically a sham, the coating doesn't make the tool sharper, just harder to sharpen when it begins to dull. Though on scissors it may make the blades a little less likely to pick up adhesive from tape (I have seen some Japanese scissors with a PTFE coating for that too).

yeah, i think they're marketed mostly as "less likely to get glues stuck". Sure look pretty though! ;)

Side tangent - I was in a hotel channel surfing when I came across an NHK program called Japanology. They have a great episode on scissors here as mentioned several times in this thread. It's become my only regular source of tv for the past year since it's all very homey feeling. LUNCH ON is my favorite since half the show isn't even about lunch but just small businesses or municipal organizations.

Whatever Japan does, it does extremely well. I bought a 0.1 mm nib size fountain pen in Japan last year. I expected it to be rough and unevenly release ink, considering how thin the nib is, but was pleasantly surprised at how good the pen was. It was a delight to use. It works smoother than my parker fountain pens, which I thought were pretty good.

Have you tried a Sony product lately? [1]

They are capable of 'world class' things, which is more than most nations can say, but like everything 'it depends'.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyCtaciiM8Y

Sony isn't really Japanese any more, it's a multinational corporation with operations in many places, including the US. This is like trying to claim that Ford cars are all-American (they aren't, they're largely made in Mexico, and they have a large European subsidiary too).

Wow, I didn’t even know I had a thing for scissors, but seems like I totally fell in love with the one that looks like a pen.

Japan has a knack for turning mundane stationery items into collectible pieces of art and creative engineering.

Some nice YouTube show-and-tells got me fascinated with that subculture (yes, a legit subculture around stationery.)

Do you have any specific YouTube videos to recommend?

Japanology’s https://youtu.be/pgPxgJMW5A8 and more in search.

They have an episode on scissors too! https://youtu.be/Gd_ySi7mjeE

Begin Japanology - Scissors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd_ySi7mjeE

This part of the article:

> There is another trend in Japan's scissors world, one in which new ideas are being applied to cutting performance. Cutting ability is not determined by sharp edges alone. Blade shape, the angle at which the blades come together and how the blades move against each other also significantly impact performance.

... immediately brought to mind proud Japanese designers doing their best to make scissors in the swordsmithing tradition of Japanese katana's and whatnot.

Nine minutes and five seconds into your linked video[0] it actually mentions a former swordsmith-turned-scissormaker from the late 19th century who applied his understanding of sword making to make better blades.

Oh Japan, how I love that reality is often better than the stereotypes about you <3

(also hate it when it's about a negative thing, but in this case it's great)

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd_ySi7mjeE&t=9m5s

Cool video, but there is something definitely weird going on with the audio; seems like some over-aggressive use of noise reduction.

Heh, I am a fan of Japanese stationary and I have a Pencut in my bag at all times. It's excellent. I also have a Sheffield-made pair from Ernest Wright in the kitchen. Horses for courses.

I am going to drop this here at the risk of down voting: Japanese nail clippers are world class (much like their scissors).

I've had the same pair, somehow, for 11 years. And to this day using them is delightful. Weird thing to say about clipping nails, but given the frequency of that activity, it's worth noting.

So next time you're in Japan doing all of the culture, and sight seeing, and eating, spend 5m to go to a pharmacy and treat yourself.

I've always been impressed by these one-piece Japanese thread scissors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WXIRPU0 Very quick to grab with one hand and make a cut. No hinge; just elastic deformation of the steel.

My favorite part about thread snips like this is that I can actually use them; standard thread scissors have finger holes that are too small for many men to use.

There seems to be almost too many options with each having some features that I don't truly understand. What would everyone recommend for an all around usage for scissors and even for a knife? I often have problems with scissors not cutting things for whatever reason.

If you have issues with fine cuts (like fishing line or tissue paper) the scissors on a victorinox swiss army knife work very well. Get a 91mm size knife for scissors that aren't laughably tiny, but only smallish.

On the opposite side, tough items, like leather or pennies (!) can be cut with EMT shears.

Trauma shears is the usual name.

Victorinox built in scissors are great. I use mine on a Classic all the time. They will send you a few replacement springs for free if you ask. It's the only problem I have ever had and that's after years and years of abuse.

Surprisingly absent: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=japanese+%22thread+scissors%22&t=h...

Worth mention: Craft Design Scissors https://www.shopkanso.com/products/craft-design-technology-s...

Genuinely curious, why are Japanese people cutting things so often that this became a thing?

All I own is one absolute garbage pair of scissors, and I use them so rarely that it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think I’m an outlier, in the US.

It's not an isolated example. There is a perfectionist streak in Japanese culture, which you can observe if you study any of their traditional arts (karate, tea ceremony, etc.) This shows up in the quality of some of their consumer goods.

As another example, there was a Japanese chalk company (Hagoromo) which has unfortunately gone out of business, but which built up a fanatical following among mathematicians. I am a mathematician myself, and I found their chalk to be noticeably superior to anything which I'd previously tried.

A South Korean company bought some of Hagamoro's machines and is making chalk branded as "Hagamoro Fulltouch". I haven't used it but I've heard it's still good.

http://en.sejongmall.co.kr/category/full-touch%ED%83%84%EC%8...

Yes! It is. Happily, the buyers have (more or less) maintained the quality of the original.

Individually-plastic-packaged fruit and veg in Japanese grocery stores’ produce sections might be one large difference in how many things some people might find themselves cutting through per day.

Japan has never gotten on board with the whole “waste reduction” thing.

No, but they're a lot better about recycling than America is. America doesn't even recycle much any more; we used to pack stuff up in containers and ship it back to China, but now China won't take it, so it's either being piled up, or landfilled. Japan actually recycles its own trash.

From my understand, Japan pretty much only recycles anything that doesn't burn, which doesn't include the vast majority of the excessive amount of plastic packaging and plastic bags the country throws at you.

Only speculating, but I suggest it may have even nothing to do with some specific industry (although paper seems to have a prominent role ...) - rather, an interest in artisanal quality.

Consider that 'Sushi Chef' is not just some arbitrary post, like 'cook' - it's a status. An artisanal occupation. Not a very high status, but a status nonetheless. The chef can take immense pride in his tiny are of influence, his work is an extension of him. The clients praise (or distain) is 'personal'. So there's an expectation of quality, as a matter of dignity?

I'm only speculating.

A beautiful display of the consequences of kaizen[0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

ProTip: junky scissors can be sharpen by cutting aluminum foil.

I don't want to use any of those scissors. I want slim, plain, metal-only scissors kind of like this:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B001U57C50/

I hate plastic (grips), I hate uneven grip holes, I hate protruding elements, I hate uneven blades, I hate blunt blade tips, I hate safety features.

then buy those https://www.amazon.de/dp/B001U57C50/

who cares about things you don't like?

Don’t you see? The things I do not like should not ever be made, or be talked about, unless it’s for me to pronounce my dislike and lack of need for them.

> he things I do not like should not ever be made [...]

Wait, when did they say that? They only expressed their opinion on the kind of scissors they prefer to use and that they would never use them.

I mean, yeah, it was not a great comment, but the reactions here (not only you, another commenter did the same) seem pretty off the charts for what it was.

maybe it's like the existence of Ikea, it is difficult for him to walk into a stationary store and buy what he likes because those other objects have crowded his favored scissors out of the market, in the same way I can't find a furniture store in my city that sells good looking furniture I don't have to build.

But then the existence of the internet means you have more choices now than ever before.

What stops you from getting exactly the scissors you link to?

I love the "office" fiksars[0] because they're comfortable, and nobody could ever say that the "universals"[1] have safety features (even closed, the tip is sharp enough to penetrate skin if you're not careful).

However I wouldn't mind TFA's Pencut for my backpack's kit, because being compact and not going through the bag's canvas (or through my hand as I'm rooting around the bag) due to naked sharp tips is in fact a useful feature.

Doesn't hurt that the official ad copy pretty much brags about taking the scissors apart entirely[2]

[0] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B001GAM06U/

[1] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00ZS7I6P6/

[2] 4th picture in https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0030IMOBW/

Sounds like you could appreciate https://www.3claveles.com/3claveles_tienda/es/1003-tijeras

3 Claveles - Spanish scissor company. Very simple, very elegant, very sharp.

We use them industrially for horrible things (sending and cutting wire, rope, etc) and they keep an edge like nothing else.

There are also the ludicrously expensive El Casco: http://www.el-casco.es/en/luxury-desk-accessories/scissors.h...

El Casco is more of a luxury brand.

Their non-luxury staplers, hole punchers and mechanical pencil sharpeners are fantastic, though.

Do you always go this far out of your way to tell people that you hate something they love or do you only do this for scissors or is it only on HN?

It's called progress. Perfectly good products fall to the wayside.

Yes, because they're replaced by superior products. Uneven grip holes are a good example here: your 4 fingers together are not nearly the same size as your thumb, so why wouldn't you want uneven grip holes to match this? Ergonomics are a lot better now than they were a century ago when this guy's favorite scissors were made. And rubberized grips help you hold the scissors more securely, so you don't slip and cut yourself (or make an inaccurate cut).

i chop a lot of weed with my scissors and ergonomics are important

Reply on news.ycombinator.com